This is an idea for an artistic philosophy that mostly fits in with the category listed. Basically, I want to create pieces that are the direct result of unique environmental conditions. So, a big air sample from the Trade Centers could have been filtered and added to water to make a sort of paper mache and replicas of the towers could be made with this mache and the irony would be tolerable.

Here's another example. I let my jar candle go out but there's still wax left, so I run my faucet on full hot over the candle jar and let the melted wax collect on a plate in the sink. Then, I put the water of full cold and freeze the wax while its pouring off the plate. It looks kinda cool.

Basically, the full hot and cold temperature of the faucet and the exact state of my candle when it finally went out were the unique environmental conditions (UEC) of the artwork.

You could argue, then, that every second in time in every point in space there exist these so called UECs. This is an acceptable argument, since from it we may accept the inevitable mystery of all things. That is kinda cool. But, seriously, some times and places are way more interesting than others. Creating art that reflected this uniqueness would essentially perserve the moment in time, much like a photograph or a little video.
-- daseva, Oct 01 2006

[GumBob] isn't what you describe the essence of most post-classical art? Painting more so perhaps than other media. Doesn't a painter leave clues on his canvas as to the UECs of the time, including, most specifically, the Specific Environmental Conditions most prevalent in his mind at the moment of paint meets canvas? I'm thinking specifically of people like Van Gogh, Picasso and others who's work gains personality once you see the life and vibrancy of their brush-strokes. A vibrancy that acts as proof positive of a person's internal experience at a particular moment in time. It's very powerful.

Then there's the whole Jackson Pollock thing was about capturing movement and motion on canvas.

You've already mentioned photography - the most moment-capturing form of art (short of moving-pictures) there is.

You point out that all moments share their own individial UECs, but mention, importantly that: //some times and places are way more interesting than others.// So what makes a time and place more interesting than another? That's a really big question. I think the answer lies in people's internal states.

Since we're locked inside our own internal worlds (unable to really communicate these internal moments) we have to rely on art to convince us that we're not alone, and that other people experience the same floods of experience as we do. For me, I absorb these kinds of things from clues the artist leaves behind in their work.

I think I'd need to see some evidence of humanity in a work that captured some moment in time - otherwise, it's an experiment. It might look very interesting, and highlight the interplay between various conflicting forces, but I think you need to have a human element in order to impart some kind of meaning. It needs to be a created thing, where the creation is affected by the state the human was in who created it. An artefact that’s somehow been imbued with the human experience. We need to be able to infer what that state was when we examine the piece more closely - that's what makes art for me.
-- zen_tom, Oct 02 2006


It's a nice idea, and that's why numerous artists do this already - a good person who's work to consider in this regard is Cornelia Parker.
-- xenzag, Oct 02 2006


A large portion to this art would be actively searching out portions of the environment that are affecting large groups of people. This would be the pop art. The WTC thing.

The other portion would be the individualized conditions. The ones that are unique to me. Or you. The candle wax thing.

The overall point remains the same though, The work must reflect and exploit the uniqueness of the environment.

So, with the wax, I didn't want to just melt the wax and then mould it into something. I wanted the water to do it for me. That's the exploitation aspect. With the WTC art, the sculpture would be simple, the material would be given primary focus (exploitation). I guess I need to find a better word than exploitation.
-- daseva, Oct 03 2006



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